The Cookie Thief
by katsuyo
Summary: [oneshot]Sakura has a problem... her sugar cookies are stolen from the window sill by a well mannered cookie thief. What does Gaara have to do with this?


**Author's Note:**

I finally bit the bullet and penned a one-shot… I hope you folks get a kick out of it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I couldn't help myself – Gaara's obsession with cookies is well known.

**Dedicated to:** my ever patient beta-reader, **gymchick** and to **LostsoulofRegret**, who mentioned that she enjoyed reading a good Sakura and Gaara tale from time to time.

This is also for those folks like **Ox King**, who enjoy the guilty pleasure of curling like to a fan fiction in the wee hours. I write not for the reviews but because people like you love to read!

**Disclaimer:**I don't own Naruto… it's sad but true. Leave me alone to write already.

**The Cookie Thief**

Sakura was a little chagrinned. She had only left the room for twenty minutes… The pink-haired woman scanned the window sill again and this time she looked down into the street below. _Nope – no such luck._ It was certainly a mystery. The young woman walked back to the table scratching her head in an absent-minded fashion and sat down. The entire batch of sugar cookies were missing from the window ledge of her third story apartment… She knew her prime suspect, Naruto was currently on a mission so there was no way he was responsible. Sakura sighed to herself – it looked like she had a thief with a sweet tooth on the loose… She stared down at the table a little bemused by that thought. One hand, she was flattered that there was someone out there who craved her cooking so much that they needed to steal it but on the other hand - she was frustrated over the theft because those cookies were supposed to have been a surprise for the sand siblings.

Sakura looked up in confusion when she heard an odd whooshing sound over near the scene of the crime. The young woman looked at the open window and frowned slightly at the sight she beheld. There on the empty tray lay a small sprig of cherry blossoms with a piece of paper tied around the stem. She walked over and picked up the blossoms, inhaling their heavenly fragrance. Sakura stuck her head out the window and looked down the street. _How strange…_ Whoever it had been was long gone. She looked at the piece of paper and opened it to reveal a neatly written note.

_Thanks for the cookies – they're delicious! Sugar cookies are my favorite!_

Sakura smiled softly at that… Well, at least her thief had manners! She lifted the blossoms to her nose again, the smile still playing on her lips before she walked back to her kitchen. It looked like she needed to make another batch of cookies…

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The cookie thief watched the pink-haired kuniochi bring the cherry blossom sprig to her nose and saw the soft smile on her lips before she turned away from the window.

He knew he was a dead man if she found out who had stolen her cookies but he couldn't help himself. The young man remembered the first time he had tasted them and groaned… they reminded him of the woman who baked them. Soft, a little sweet… with a tang of vanilla and a faint hint of strawberry… One bite and he'd been hooked. He wondered if _she _would melt in his mouth and taste just as heavenly as her cookies did.

He groaned at that thought and rested his head up against his hiding spot behind the large cherry blossom tree.

The smell of his ill-gotten goods wafted up to his nose, reminding him that he still needed to get rid of the evidence before he had to get back. It wouldn't do for the others to notice his absence. He wasn't too sure how he would be able to explain his weakness. _They just wouldn't understand._

He sat down at the base of the cherry blossom tree and proceeded to eat the sugar cookies with relish.

_Yep – definitely an addiction!_ Sighed the normally brooding man blissfully before he stuffed another cookie into his mouth.

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Temari heard someone knocking on the door of their rented house and went to open it. The smell of sugar and warm baked goods assailed her nose as she welcomed her smiling guest.

"Sakura, what a surprise! We didn't see you when we came in this morning… were you working over at the hospital?" greeted the fan wielding kuniochi.

Sakura grinned, "Nope – it's my day off. Tsunade told me you guys were arriving today, so I thought I would make some cookies."

Temari lifted the cover of the container and smiled widely. "Mmmm… sugar cookies! You're going to be a popular lady with Gaara once he finds out!"

Sakura flushed slightly at the mention of the Kazekage. She had baked them with Gaara in mind because she knew he loved them. The pink-haired woman was secretly hoping that Temari wouldn't figure out just much she liked her brother. Of course she hadn't realized it either until six months ago when she had been in the sand village on a mission. She was planning to stay at the inn but the siblings insisted that they had plenty of room to spare at their home. It was two days before she was due to head back to the leaf village and she was frustrated with Gaara. She'd been there for almost two weeks and the only time the brooding red-head talked to her was in his official capacity as the Kazekage.

She had reached the point where his continual silence around the house was starting to get to her. Sakura had retreated to the sanctuary of the kitchen and started to whip up a batch of sugar cookies, rather than dwell on the complex gourd-wearing sand nin.

She had been pulling the last batch of cookies out of the oven when she felt a pair of curious eyes on her. Sakura looked up quickly from placing the last tray onto the cooling rack to see Gaara eagerly sniffing the air and eyeing the cookies hopefully. She had been shocked to hear him say in childish delight, "Are those sugar cookies I smell?"

Sakura blushed, nodded mutely and gestured for the red-head to help himself from the heaping pile of cooled cookies. She would never forget the look he gave her after he had taken his first bite and closed his eyes with a groan. She didn't realize that she'd been holding her breath until he opened them again and pinned her with the most blatantly lustful gaze she had ever witnessed. It had made her feel strangely excitedly and a little nervous when she saw it. She was left wondering what would have happened next if Kankuro hadn't have rushed into the kitchen, louding declaring that he could smell cookies. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about Gaara since then.

Sakura was brought back to the present when she heard Temari ask, "We were expecting you earlier. Did you get held up doing errands?"

The pink-haired medic nin chuckled wryly and walked into the house. "You could say that…"

Temari grinned at that reply, "I sense a story… why don't I make us some tea and you can tell me what happened?"

Sakura placed the cookies onto the counter and smiled. Tea sounded like a great idea.

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He heard the sounds of women laughing and walked toward the origin of the noise. Gaara frowned – Temari was definitely entertaining someone but he couldn't tell who it was.

He was almost in the kitchen when he heard Sakura's voice and froze in the hallway.

"...so, I have this well-mannered cookie thief lurking out there somewhere."

Gaara could hear his sister howling in laughter and felt his face flaming.

"Well, it's a good thing that the man just wanted your baked goods and not your virtue." replied Temari grinning evilly.

The red-head was starting to feel a little awkward for ease-dropping on the two women but he was curious about the medic-nin's response to his sister's comment.

"Oh… I don't know…" sighed the pink haired woman wistfully, "If my thief is as handsome as he is charming, I don't think I would miss my virtue too much."

Gaara's jade eyes widened in delighted surprise at that and a sly smile crossed his lips.

Temari laughed, "Sakura, you are so bad! It's obvious that you've been single for way too long. We definitely need to find you a man"

The young-man grinned wider and silently agreed with his sister before he quietly left the hallway.

Sakura frowned slightly – she thought she felt someone else was here.

"Sakura? Are you okay?" asked the blonde. Sakura glanced up at the look of concern on her friend's face and smiled, "Oh, I'm fine… it's nothing… so, speaking of men… how are things with you and Shikamaru?"

Temari grinned, "Oh the usual…"

"Troublesome!" replied both women in perfect unison before they dissolved into a fit of laughter.

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It was early evening before Sakura finally headed back to her apartment. Temari had asked her to stay for dinner but she decided in the end that it was more prudent for her to go home instead. She wasn't ready to let her friend know that she had a thing for her baby brother. The pink-haired woman was secretly relieved that Gaara hadn't showed up while she was visiting. She just didn't trust herself to behave normally around the Kazekage, especially if he gave her another one of _those_ looks again.

Sakura stopped walking and looked down at the road, closing her eyes in frustration. _This was crazy!_ Maybe she just imagined the whole thing with Gaara and her friends were right – she needed _a man_ in her life. The problem was – her heart had itself set on the broody red-haired man with the love tattoo on his temple.

Sakura sighed, continuing to walk and decided that she would call Ino and go out tonight… no sense in spending another night at home reading another medical scroll.

Her Sensei had threatened to set her up with a nice young ANBU yesterday but she quickly declined the offer, hesitantly confessing to her that she had a crush on someone but he wasn't aware of her existence.

Tsunade had raised her eyebrow at that juicy little tidbit and gave her favorite student a long look of consideration before she dismissed the pink-haired woman from her office.

Sakura looked down the road and saw her apartment building up ahead.

She gave a deep sigh and sped up her walking. There was plenty of time to decide what to do this evening once she had a long soak in the tub and a glass of wine.

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Sakura walked into her cozy little apartment and closed the door before walking over to the kitchen. She grabbed a wine glass and reached inside the fridge for the white wine.

The young woman poured herself a generous glass, then walked into her bathroom to start running a bath.

She had just put on some soft jazz music when an object on the window ledge caught her eye.

Sakura glided across the wooden floors to the window and opened it a crack to retrieve the fragile orchid sitting there. She looked out at the street below but the streets were fairly deserted. The pink-haired medic nin smiled softly when she recognized the identical scrap of parchment on the stem of the orchid and walked over to her kitchen table. It looked like she had an admirer. Sakura felt her face flushing a little as she sat down and reached for her glass of wine. She took a little sip to calm her nerves and opened the parchment with slightly trembling fingers. It was written in the same neat script as the first note, confirming her suspicions it was _her _mystery cookie thief.

_I wanted to stay away but I can't help myself… your beauty is intoxicating._

Sakura picked up the delicate orchid and stroked the pink petals, noting that the shade matched her own unique hair coloring.

The young woman picked up her glass of wine and touched the bloom with reverent fingertips before she got up and went into the bathroom and closed the door softly behind her.

She didn't notice the sand eyeball watching on with interest from the window ledge.

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Temari would be the first to say that he didn't have a romantic bone in his soulless body.

_Hmmmph. Anyone could be inspired to be romantic if the right situation presented itself… even him._

He just wasn't too sure how the pink-haired medic nin would feel if she knew he was her secret admirer.

She had been on Gaara's mind ever since that episode in the kitchen six months ago.

He hadn't missed that breathless look she had given him after he had virtually stripped her naked with his eyes. _Maybe it was a good thing that his brother had walked in when he did… _Gaara reflected to himself. It had been a heady experience – he had come close to devouring the pink-haired woman in a cloud of unrestrained passion, all because of a batch of sugar cookies.

He had known in that one brief moment of clarity that she would have let him too. Gaara had tried to dismiss the encounter as incidental but he was haunted by the possibility that it could be more than a passing fancy for them both.

He briefly felt like a heel for pumping Naruto for information on the medic nin's love life whenever he was in the sand village for missions but the blonde man had been surprisingly very forthcoming. It transpired that Naruto was genuinely concerned about his pink-haired friend's continual single status - despite the fact that any number of men in Suna and Konoha would willingly flock to her side in a heartbeat if she so much as looked in their general direction. Gaara frowned at that thought – he really didn't like the idea of other men dating her.

The good news was – she seemed to be enjoying the attention she was receiving from him and that was encouraging at least.

He looked over to the window of her apartment and sighed. _Maybe this was a bad idea… _Gaara was beginning to feel like a stalker… watching for signs of her at the window ledge.

He was about to leave the safety of his hiding spot when he saw the most extraordinary thing he had ever seen. He shut his eyes quickly and tried to control the sharp jolt of lust that shot through him. _It's official – I'm a pervert!_ Gaara looked up at the window to see Sakura clad in a thin green gown and putting something on the window ledge.

He frowned and swiveled his third eye into position to see…

The red-head groaned and rested his head up against the cherry blossom tree when he saw what was on the window sill.

_She's trying to lure me out with temptation and it's working…_

Sure enough, Sakura had left him a couple of sugar cookies and a small slip of parchment.

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The medic nin had a brilliant idea while she'd been soaking in the tub, thinking about this mystery man.

Despite the stalkerish undertones to the whole situation, Sakura wasn't scared by the man's gentle courtship. If anything, she found it oddly romantic but she was getting curious.

She didn't know why the man chose to hide in the shadows but she was guessing he had his reasons. Sakura figured it out while she was lounging in her scented bathwater that if she could lure the man out with his known weakness – she could get a chance to talk to him.

As flattered as she was by the attention, Sakura didn't want to lull the poor man into a false sense of hope when she secretly yearned for one man.

Resolved on this course of action, she had set the trap on the window sill and waited for the man to take the bait.

She was dying to know what he looked like but knew that he was too smart to make a grab for his one known weakness while she was watching the window.

She walked into her bedroom and got dressed, prepared to finally greet her cookie thief.

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Gaara waited for her to go to her bedroom before he went near the cookies. They called to him like a siren's call from the window sill and she knew that he couldn't resist their pull for too long.

He quickly snitched the cookies and the note before disappearing back to his spot behind the giant cherry blossom tree.

The red head groaned when his hands closed around the cookies – they were still warm!

He stuffed them into his mouth, savoring their unique flavor. _They were sooo good!_

Gaara gave a contented sigh before he opened the small piece of parchment - then his blood ran cold at the words written on it.

_The cookies were laced with a poison… you need to show yourself if you want the antidote._

He had no choice but to reveal himself - she was waiting to see him.

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Sakura felt awful telling her cookie thief that she had poisoned the cookies. He had no way of knowing that she was pulling a bluff on him. She stayed in her room pacing near in front of the bedroom door, listening for sounds of someone entering her apartment.

The pink-haired woman was about to give up on this foolish idea of hers when she heard the most unexpected sound outside. She knew that sound anywhere – she heard it in her dreams… It was the rushing of sand.

Sakura rushed out of the bedroom in the hope that her ears were deceiving her but no – it was Gaara.

He looked extremely unhappy, "Okay, I'm here… where's the anti-dote?"

Sakura stared at the red head in awe, "I bluffed, Gaara… I wasn't expecting _you_ to be my mysterious cookie thief."

He narrowed his eyes at her then, "It seems I under-estimated my opponent."

She could see that he was a little upset but also… saddened? She was curious to find out why.

"Gaara – why?" she asked a little dazed. Sakura was holding her breath to hear his answer and he didn't disappoint her.

"I can't resist your cookies… they make me want to taste your lips to see if they are just as addicting." growled the Kazekage.

Sakura certainly wasn't expecting _that_ answer. _Wow! And here she was thinking that she would get rejected if she admitted that she wanted the same thing… incredible._

She decided then and there that he deserved to hear what she had been hiding in her heart for these six months.

Sakura walked over to the brooding red-head and stopped directly in front of him. She placed her hand on his cheek and felt his skin jump at the contact as he watched his brilliant jade eyes flare open.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" whispered the young woman. Gaara looked at Sakura with mild surprise before a small smirk lit up his face.

He closed the distance between them and tentatively touched her lips with his own. She opened her mouth slightly in invitation and Gaara couldn't resist her anymore. He closed the gap further and molded her body to his own with his wandering hands while he scorched a path down to her soul with his lips and his tongue.

_Yes – she melts in my arms and she tastes every bit as heavenly as her cookies…_ thought Gaara fleetingly as he picked up the pink-haired woman and continued to kiss her breathless. He walked to her bedroom and closed the door.

The Kazekage remembered Sakura's comment to Temari regarding her cookie thief and he wasn't about to disappoint the young woman in his arms by stopping now…

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_Six months later…_

It was the smell of freshly baked sugar cookies entering his office that made the Kazekage look up from his paperwork and give his visitor a very evil grin.

"Lock the door…" growled Gaara to his pink-haired wife.

Sakura leaned against the door and locked it, smiling seductively at the man sitting behind the table.

Even though she was six months pregnant, she was still the most intoxicating thing he'd ever tasted. He would never get enough of her or her cookies…

The Hokage had been mildly put out that the Kazekage had knocked up her best medic nin but she had been willing to overlook such discourtesy when she saw how happy her favorite student was with the frightening young man. It was also kind of difficult to ignore how smitten he was with her when Gaara kept trailing his fingers along her arms and would occasionally give her scorching looks of desire when the Hokage was trying to conduct a meeting. It didn't take much convincing from that point on for Tsunade to authorize a transfer for Sakura to Suna.

Temari and Kankuro were thrilled at the changes the young medic nin had wrought in their previously moody brother. It was also a nice bonus to have someone in the family who was a decent cook!

The only person who seemed upset by the new developments in Sakura's life was the Kyuubi vessel himself, Naruto.

He wasn't upset about the fact that his best friend Sakura was now joined at the hip to Gaara…

No - He was more distraught to hear that she would be no longer making chocolate chip cookies for him.


End file.
